


Your Biggest Fan

by fishydip



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Blogger AU, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Crack Treated Seriously, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Genderqueer Character, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Language, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Secret Identity, Social Media, Viktor is the president of Yuuri's fanclub, Viktor with a K, Yuuri is the president of Viktor's fanclub, i guess is what you would call this, it's a fucking TRAINWRECK, kind of, neither of them are aware of this, sort of, viktor is genderqueer, what the fuck is this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-09-27 04:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9963788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishydip/pseuds/fishydip
Summary: Viktor Nikforov is a world-champion level skater by day, but in his off time, he is secretly the president of the fanclub for a up-and-coming skater from Japan. Yuuri Katsuki is an up-and-coming figure skater by day, but in his off time, he is secretly the president of the fanclub for the world-champion skater from Russia.somehow the two skater's fandoms start fighting each other. And in the middle of it are "GoldYK" and "Vicchan" self-proclaimed number 1 fans of Katsuki and Nikiforov respectively, presidents of their respective fanclubs, who repeatedly get into heated arguments over who is the better skater.meanwhile, Yuuri and Viktor await the day they can meet their celebrity crushes and hope that it won't be too obvious exactly how enamored they are. It gets to be a little ridiculous.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh...  
> so i've been sort of getting into the like actual figure skating fandom lately. and i've seen alot of arguments between skating fans. and then i had this idea...  
> i wrote this and then i realised i have not been on Tumblr or Twitter in upwards of 2 years so i dont really know how anything is formatted on thsoe sites.  
> I'm not sure where this came from it just kind of happened.
> 
> i hope you enjoy!

tumblr:

 **The official fanclub of Viktor Nikiforov**  

Hey guys, this is the tumblr for the fanclub of Viktor Nikiforov!

Come here for your Nikiforov needs \\( ^ o ^ )/

**News**

**About**

**Upcoming events**

**Discord**

**Facebook**

**Twitter**

**Ask**

**Home**

**Forum page**

**About >>**

Mods of this blog:

 _Official fanclub president_ : mod Vicchan

he/him pronouns, knows Japanese, English

Also runs the twitter

 _Vice president_ : mod cheritree

They/them or she/her pronouns, knows english, russian

 _PR director_ : Mod Niki

she/her pronouns, knows English, French, Spanish

 _Vice-Vice president_ : mod Fempletemple

Xe/Xir pronouns, knows English and russian

* * *

 

**Twitter:**

**Viktor Fanclub Official**

@VNikiforovFanclubOfficial

Run by club president Vicchan

he/him pronouns

I can speak English, Japanese, and _some_ Russian

This twitter is dedicated to posting news and discussions related to Viktor Nikiforov

 

* * *

tumblr:

**YUURI KATSUKI PROTECTION SQUAD HEADQUARTERS**

Official Yuuri Katsuki fanclub tumblr blog!

News, updates, fanart, fic recs and more posted daily!

**LINKS**

**ABOUT**

**ASK**

**TWITTER**

**FACEBOOK GROUP**

**FORUM**

 

**About >>**

Mods:

PRESIDENT:  mod GoldYK

They/them , She/her, He/his pronouns

Personal blog: [link]

Personal twitter: [link]

VICE PRESIDENT: mod Katsu

He/his pronouns

Personal blog: [link]

also shows up: mod Ree

she/her pronouns

personal twitter:[link]

 

* * *

 

**twitter**

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub

This account is run by GoldY

I am the president of the fanclub of Katsuki Yuuri, the other board members have access to this account but I mostly run it lol

I love Katsuki-sama  <3 <3

This twitter will post about news and discussions relating to Yuuri and his skating!

I know English, Russian, and a considerable amount of French, I’m working to learn a little Japanese, even though I suck at it

 

 

* * *

 

 

 A couple years ago Viktor had joined a fanclub for a skater.

It hadn’t really been that much of an intentional thing.

He was around maybe 21, and this skater had started doing seniors afew years back, Viktor hadn’t payed him that much mind

Except for whatever reason, his fans had beef with the fans of this other skater. Who had entered the world stage after being picked to go to four continents by his country's skating federation after placing high in nationals.

Yuuri’s following wasn’t quite that big back then, but the conflicts between the fandoms caught his attention.

He wondered why? Why did his fans have a problem with the other skater? So he decided to watch some of his performances… the 17 year old Japanese skater Yuuri katsuki.

Well, one thing that stuck out to him was that Katsuki, for whatever reason, wasn’t at his full potential as a skater. He always looked intensely nervous before competitions no matter who his coach was or what they did to try and calm him down. He was very emotive as a skater, but it often looked like something was holding him back. He did however notice, that Katsuki was a fan of his… nothing new, he was only four years younger, but a lot of younger skaters knew about him and said he was their inspiration, it was flattering. Though Katsuki seemed to have a very deep grasp of what made Viktor’s performances good, the style, the movement, the feeling, and he tried to imitate that, and he damn-near succeeded a lot of the time. Except for the fact that he was not that good at jumps and there was a nervous stiffness to him that often had him shaking during his skates. His few gala exhibitions, though, were a sight to behold, he skated beautifully.

His curiosity with the young skater blossomed into a fondness, he was rooting for Katsuki, he clearly had potential, he just needed to reach it. Then as he watched more of his performances more often, bookmarked a pintrest board, stalked his instagram without following it, as well as his twitter. He became a fan, then he started following a fan blog on a private account, which led to a fan forum, which lead to more pintrest boards, fan instagram and twitter accounts, which led to the fan club. Which lead to _joining_ the fan club, which led to, ironically, defending Katsuki against his Viktor’s _own fans_ , which led to him becoming a big name in the fandom (under the name GoldYK ), which led to him being contacted by the vice president when they had to step down to focus on their kids, which led to him becoming the actual president when the president left not a few months later.

In the course of maybe a year he went from not knowing who Yuuri was to being the president of his fanclub.

Yakov was certainly pissed that Viktor spent so much of his free time on his phone and laptop. But Viktor was having fun. Ever since school stopped he’s had way too much free time. He loved interacting with fans, but this was something else entirely.

He thought it would be very difficult, but the other club heads and the vice president were all very very helpful and understanding that he had a busy schedule and helped him manage the blog, the twitter, the facebook group, all that jazz.

All the while, he grew more annoyed with his own fandom.

Sure, he loved his fans! He would never want to hurt them or their feelings, but after all this time he was still not very clear on why exactly his fandom had beef with Katsuki’s fandom. They always seemed to be the one to pick fights, he hadn’t even competed against Katsuki yet, but his fans were insistent on belittling Yuuri and his performances. So under the mask of GoldYK (most people called them GoldY) he defended Katsuki’s performances.

It soon came to be the Viktor and GoldY were like different people, Sure he was both. But he sorted his different thoughts that he put out onto the internet to one of his two personas: either Viktor Nikiforov, the charming skater, always polite, loves his fans, sophisticated but optimistic, a hard worker, or GoldY the passionate fan, argumentative, deeply enamored with Yuuri, and very dedicated to him, excitable and friendly, somewhat lazy and self-deprecating, considerably more crass and quick-witted.

As GoldY he could explore his gender identity a bit, make friendships, geek out about skating, and argue passionately.

But… there was this one son of a bitch that threw a bit of a wet towel over the whole experience.

 

 

At 15, Yuuri joined the official Viktor Nikiforov Fanclub.

Of course, he had been a fan for a few years at that point, he was already starting his junior skating career and gearing up to enter the senior division within the next few years, with the hopes of Meeting Viktor in person.

His parents finally invested in buying a home computer, and Yuuri quickly used it to dig up everything he could get his hands on that related to his favorite skater. He found the fanclub and signed up for the mailing list, bookmarking the forums and anything he could find.

But… he realized it would be kind of embarrassing if whoever was keeping track of his skating career knew he was also a member of Viktor’s fanclub. What would Viktor think if he met Yuuri. Yuuri would never be able to be his equal if he was a known member of his fanclub. So he created a pseudonym, Vicchan. He made no reference to his personal life or that he was a career skater.

The mask of anonymity gave him a bit of courage. He was tempted to tell Yuuko and Takeshi all about the fandom, but on the other hand, he wanted to protect his identity. Vicchan allowed him an outlet he hadn’t known he’d needed. On the forums, his inner fanboy came out in full force. Because he wasn’t the only one here and there were tons of other fans who similarly watched Viktor’s performances over and over again and had his pictures all over their bedroom walls and could talk about Viktor and how incredible he is for days. His passion was being recognized, at least. People cared about what he had to say and often had respect for his deep knowledge of skating.

As Vicchan he followed Viktor on every social media thing there was, he also followed fan accounts, pintrest boards, websites, blogs and forums, he even became familiar with fanfiction sites, which were fascinating. He became pretty well known as a member of the fandom. Enough that the heads of the fanclub knew him by name and promised to give him the president spot if it were ever open, since the vice president didn’t have the time to act as president.

Meanwhile, he started to gain a little traction as a skater.  When he was 17 He managed to do well in nationals that year, enough that the JSF decided to send him to four continents. And he gained a bit of an international following. The next year he would be going off to college in America, since his performance at nationals and four continents was enough to convince Celestino Cialdini to take him on as a pupil, he would be training under him in Detroit.

However, after his introduction to the world stage, his fandom expanded considerably, now there were forums in English as well as Japanese. And for some reason, the starting point of this trend was not immediately obvious, but his own miniscule fandom started talking trash about Viktor and his fandom.

 

At first he was horrified.

He had no control over his fans, but those slandering Viktor might ruin Viktor’s opinion of _him._ On his official account he made it clear that he respected Viktor. It wasn’t clear who started it, but a war between the fandoms happened regardless.

Luckily Viktor didn’t seem to care or notice that much, he responded to one question on twitter once, when someone asked if he was mad about “the situation with Katsuki”(what that situation was? no one knew.) he just responded that he wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but he didn’t have any feelings against [Katsuki]. Yuuri had to keep his fit of gigging and embarrassment to himself since freaking out about how _Viktor acknowledged his existence_ would be a dead giveaway if he did it as Vicchan, but he would never forget that first time he had tangible proof that he was slowly inching closer to being able to meet Viktor as an equal.

And shortly after that, the club president had to step down. She still hung around on the forums afterwards, but she was too busy to manage all the social media sites. And to Yuuri’s surprise, they offered the spot to Vicchan. Apparently they had been serious. He ended up accepting.

At first it was really stressful. He was no good at social media, although he managed to keep the sites updated regularly, he fell behind with his own social media presence as Yuuri Katsuki. He was grateful when the vice president accepted his suggestion that they take on more club board members to help balance the work a bit, and he was able to sort of keep up with his own official skating pages.

Well, he probably didn’t update them as often as he should, he had always been way more active as Vicchan. And he became especially active when he started to get involved in the Viktor Vs. Yuuri debate.

He quickly learned that trying to calm the mess as Yuuri had been no help. So instead he did his best to defend Viktor’s honor as Vicchan from his own fanbase.

But there was this one motherfucker he kept finding himself butting heads with.

 

 

December 2013:

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

                 @Katsuki_Yuuri_Official_Fanclub  Told you he wouldn’t make it to the GPF. He didn’t even make it to worlds. He totally overscored at the GP qualifiers, good thing the judges take pity on him in Japan and nowhere else. Where’s all your boasting now?

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

               @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial are you actually suggesting that Yuuri only made it to the GPX because of favoritism? Are you literally blind? can you not count?!  He was NOT overscored, the judges know what they are doing. you’re just jealous that Nikiforov is about to be on his way out and Yuuri’s getting better every year <3

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

              @Katsuki_Yuuri_Official_Fanclub man fuck you Viktor’s not “on his way out” he’s not even at the peak of his career! You can let yourself think that tho since the only chance Katsuki is gonna have of getting anywhere in an ISU championship is if Viktor retires. And Yuuri was totally overscored, he only landed ONE jump cleanly out of FIVE and he still broke 200? The whole PCS thing is total bullshit, art is subjective, we don’t know if he’s actually has a good emotional interpretation of the piece or if he’s just copying what he thinks Viktor would do

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  Yuuri looks up to Nikiforov, but he DOES NOT copy him. Viktor could nnnooot pull off step sequences the way Yuuri does. thats CLEARLY something he does on his own. PCS is not bullshit, figure skating is intrinsically linked to interpretive dance, and if a panel of professional judges are able to see the emotion behind Yuuri’s skating and they all agree that yuuri’s dancing was expressive and genuine, then clearly everyone else is seeing something that you are just missing. Wake UP asshole, Nikiforov is almost 25, he’s got like 5 years before he won’t be allowed to compete anymore, and that’s assuming that he doesn’t get injured or retire early. He might be at his peak, but what goes up must come down, sorry you had to learn like this.

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

          @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial oh and even if Nikiforov and Katsuki competed together. Yuuri. Would. win. Competing against his idol might give him the motivation to improve his focus and do better on his jumps. And if Katsuki raised his TES on his FS and SP for this year to its full potential, and you add that to the usual PCS he earns, you’ll notice: HE COULD TOTALLY BEAT VIKTOR. It would put his scores well above the 280 range. Again, can you not count???  Katsuki is gonna surpass Viktor, the numbers do not lie. *drops mic*

 

Yuuri fumed. He couldn’t believe this asshat. How dare they! What if Viktor _sees_ this? He cannot believe the nerve GoldY has, slandering Viktor and comparing him to some dime-a-dozen skater. It’s not just that, but the fact that GoldY just assumed that “with a little more focus” Yuuri could totally pull up his TES and beat Viktor. That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works! And whatever imaginary math GoldY was doing (seriously ? ‘above the 280 range’? Where the fuck did they get that number?) was vague enough that Yuuri would sound overly pedantic if he argued against it. That mic dropping gesture was rubbing him the wrong way though, GoldY was trying to escape this argument. But Yuuri’s competitive streak was not to be laughed at and he hated admitting defeat more than anything, especially when it came to his rival.

He typed up a response

 

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub  you get back here you bastard, it does not matter what yuuri COULD get on his programs for THIS YEAR. he won’t be competing against Viktor this year, and Viktor’s highest score for this year doesn’t prove anything about what he’s capable of, everyone knows he’s planning to peak at the Olympics and worlds.  And do you actually know whether yuuri can even do the jumps he has planned? Has he ever actually landed them in competition? I think not. Come talk to me when Katsuki actually makes it to an ISU championship and beats Viktor. Talk all you want, Katsuki could not pull it off.

 

Viktor growled at the tweet.

Great. Vicchan was being as persistent as ever. He’s just mad because Viktor is right and he knows it.

He admits, Vicchan was knowledgeable when it came to skating, he knows what he’s talking about. BUT he just has this annoying persistence that Yuuri isn’t that impressive as a skater, and it’s just so frustrating. He seems to deliberately turn a blind eye to Yuuri’s obvious talents and focus only on his flaws. Viktor just wants to tape his eyes open and make him ACTUALLY watch one of Katsuki’s performances until he accepts that Yuuri has exceptional potential and that he’s talented.

He is flattered that his fans think so highly of him, but as GoldY, there was nothing stopping him from laying down some cold hard truth. But he had to be careful. He had cautiously implied that ‘Viktor’ had been losing steam recently. But it seemed not that many people agreed with him. And he’s a little too worried that if ‘GoldYK’ spoke at length about what might be happen to Viktor’s creative drive behind the scenes, people will start to suspect things. And if that happens, people might connect dots that Viktor didn’t even realized were there. If the public found out that he was A: not only an active participant of another skater’s fanclub, but the _presiden_ t and B: he has been harshly criticizing and arguing with his own fans and fanclub, his reputation will be _ruined._

But he absolutely hated it when Vicchan said all that shitty stuff about Yuuri, like how he’ll never make it. Yuuri was not very active online, but he favorited things regularly, so he does see what people say about him. Viktor wanted to protect him. He can’t help but imagine that if Yuuri read the things Vicchan says about him, he’ll think that’s how everyone sees him. So for every comment Vicchan makes about how Yuuri will never amount to anything Viktor felt like he needed to show that not everyone thinks like that by fighting back tooth and claw, just in case Yuuri sees the conversation, so he’ll know that there are people who believe in him. But he knew he’s running out of steam right now in this particular argument and he could only guess Vicchan is too. He’s become pretty familiar with Vicchan’s habits by this point.

 

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  Just you wait. It’s gonna happen, you’ll never believe who’s gonna be laughing in the end. hint: not you, hoe. Yuuri can surpass Viktor. And he will. Viktor can sit and look pretty on his throne for now, tell him to enjoy it while he can. Katsuki is coming for him. B)

 

Viktor types it out and sends it with full seriousness, but it actually makes him laugh.

Sometimes it hits him exactly who he is and what he’s saying.

He’s laid out on his bed in the early morning.

He has imagined that though. He looked forward to being able to meet Katsuki and see him skate in person. Did he think Yuuri could beat him? Probably. He does genuinely believe that if Yuuri could find a better coping mechanism to deal with performance anxiety and brushed up on his jumps, yes, he could give Viktor a run for his money.

However, Yuuri’s programs were never as demanding as they could be. Like Yuuri is hesitant to take advantage of his skills as a skater. Sure, he capitalized on step sequences and spins, he always loaded up his PCS to its full potential. But Yuuri never seems that tired after a program. Some of his gala skates were more physically demanding than his competitive programs.

Viktor was all too curious about what was holding Yuuri back. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to help him. But… Well, it would be weird for him to contact Katsuki out of the blue. And he can’t help but think that somehow, someone is going to figure out that Viktor is GoldY if he does that.

He wanted it to happen though. He can’t think of a much better skater to dethrone him. Well, there’s Yuri Plisetsky, but he has a certain fondness for Yuuri Katsuki that makes him imagine that being surpassed by Yuuri would be the greatest thing to happen to his career.

He wondered what Yuuri was like in real life. He wanted to meet him, talk to him… maybe if he can think of an excuse to talk to Yuuri as Viktor and somehow not manage to spill how big of a fan he is, they could become friends? Maybe close friends? Maybe more than friends?

Viktor mentally slapped himself. He felt his cheeks heat up regardless.

He’d been fighting back this crush for quite a while and it got harder and harder to deny all the time. He’s tried to tell himself that he’s being stupid.

Viktor sighed into his pillow.

 

 

 

Yuuri laughed and rolled his eyes at GoldY’s tweet.

Yeah, okay. Whatever.

GoldY almost always ended every argument by saying that they just needed to wait to see what would happen in the future and they would ultimately be proven right. They just didn’t want to accept defeat.

Yuuri was kind of sick of arguing anyway.

He looked up at his poster of Viktor, and he was suddenly very self-conscious. What kind of skater is secretly the president of another skater’s fanclub, and spends their free time arguing about how they suck and the other skater is so much better?

Yuuri wasn’t sure. To an extent he really did believe everything he said. But it wasn’t as if GoldY didn’t have a point.

He didn’t hate GoldY, really. In some ways he was fond of his fan, in some ways he supposed it was nice that he had an outlet to both praise Viktor and demean himself, and he would always receive a response that showed how much faith his fans had in him.

After those arguments was nice for him. When the heat of the moment was over and he had a fresh batch of things his fan said to mull over.

He’d done this before, look at the things his fans said about him to get motivation, even other arguments of Katsuki Vs. Nikiforov. But that also made him nervous about the other party in the argument. How many people thought all these horrible things about him, exactly?

When he was the one putting his own insecurities out into the void of the internet, under the guise of criticizing someone else, he didn’t have to wonder about who was thinking these things and why, so it just felt good when people got mad about what he said and tried to prove him wrong and showed they had faith in him.

He wondered if starting arguments like this made him a bad person.

After all, during the actual arguments he was 0% thankful and 100% pissed. He stepped entirely into the role of Vicchan, Viktor’s undying fan who hated Yuuri Katsuki. It was only afterwards that he felt any bliss. And it probably made GoldY pretty pissed off. He tried not to feel just a little proud that he made his fan frustrated... After all, if GoldY found out they were arguing with the skater they were defending the whole time… well, they would ruin him, basically.

Maybe he needed a new hobby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew okay so, yeah, that's my idea.  
> I just wanted to throw this AU out into the internet because i think it's an interesting idea.  
> take from it what you will ' w '
> 
> i also remembered that tweets are supposed to only be 140 characters, and the tweets i wrote out were too long. so lets just say in the real world ,those tweets would have to be split up into several tweets, but that would be a pain in the ass to read, so i'm gonna leave it how it is.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic got a lot of nice comments!? thank you all so much youre such sweethearts!! I’m so glad people are so fascinated with this AU! Thank you all for your lovely support! It means the world to me!!!\\( ' V ' )/  
> this fic is probably gonna continue as a series of vignettes that are _sort of_ in chronological order. this happens before chapter 1 did and the second half is a bit after... but i promise i'll make it clear in each chapter where in this fics timeline we are.
> 
> sorry this took awhile, i had school shit happen fuck

The first time Viktor sent a personal message to Katsuki, it was because Yuuri had sprained his ankle badly when he flubbed a jump at the Trophee de France. Viktor had been shocked when he saw it, one of the few times he managed to find the time to watch one of Yuuri’s events live in the comfort of his own home where he could hug pillows and stare in unadulterated glee, and this happens? He silently paced the entire apartment and tried not to bite his fingernails. Yuuri was probably not only going to be physically impacted, but emotionally too. He might not make it to the GPF this year… but that was okay! There was always next year, and four continents, and maybe even worlds! (Viktor hoped but, if Yuuri didn’t make it to the final it might not happen this year.) Yuuri might need some emotional support though…

He couldn’t send that as Viktor, though he would like to. It might look suspicious. But! He was president of Yuuri’s fanclub! He hadn’t forced Yuuri to interact with him at all, he didn’t want to force Yuuri to do anything he didn’t want to. But, it might not be so unusual for the leader of the biggest organization of Yuuri Katsuki fans to try to let Katsuki know how his fans felt about his injury and to speak for the whole of the fandom and support him. Even if he didn’t respond, it might be nice to get a message making it clear that his fans were rooting for him and cared about him and believed in him.

So he spent probably more time than he should, carefully picking his words and lovingly crafting a message to send to Yuuri through twitter. He contemplated contacting his vice president to run it by him, but he decided against it. This was the first time he’d be contacting Yuuri directly, he sort of wanted it to be special… well even though he was speaking for a whole fandom, this was between him and Yuuri! He tried to ignore the way his heart clenched at that thought, but a heart-shaped grin spread on his face anyway.

Right after the competition ended he made sure Yuuri would receive a lovingly-worded and supportive message from GoldY. And a picture of some dogs because Yuuri, bless his heart, was also a dog person.

 

October 2012:

**YUURI KATSUKI’S #1 FANS:**

< “Hi, I am the president of your fan club. I’ve never spoken with you directly before, but I am obviously a huge fan of you! Everyone’s worried about you since what happened… That fall in France was pretty bad, But you skated so excellently! You can always land that jump next time! We believe in you, and we’ll always be there for you!  I hope you didn’t get hurt too badly, you will get better soon! Everyone else and I are breathlessly looking forward to your next performance!! –  Love, the Katsuki Yuuri Official Fanclub President AKA GoldY.”

<*Followed by a picture of some adorable puppies*

 

 

At first, this was horrifying. Yuuri panicked and thought GoldY might be onto him. But, once he went back and re-read the message, he realized it was _really was_ just a message of support and well wishes meant for Yuuri Katsuki from his fanclub’s president _. GoldY had no idea_. Yuuri couldn’t help but smirk wickedly into his hand. Oh, if only they knew who they were _really_ sending this message to.

Well, Yuuri knew his fanbase oft lamented how uninvolved he was with his fans. But GoldY had worked up the nerve to send him a message wishing him the best anyway. The message itself was kind of nice, and well, Viktor would definitely respond to it if this happened to him. He needed to keep up appearances, it might be suspicious if he didn't respond. the least he could do was show his appreciation… even if he was actually talking to his most bitter _rival._

 

**Katsuki Yuuri:**

“I’m so happy that there are people out there who support me so much, thank you! It’s nice to be reminded of the people who care. I won’t be able to skate for a while or put much weight on my ankle, I’ll have to practice extra hard once I get back on the ice. I wouldn’t want to let you all down. I know I’m not very active on the internet, but I really do see my fan's kind words all the time and it always warms my heart. I wish I could extend my thanks to everyone in my fanbase, but I don’t have enough time to answer everyone’s messages individually. I’m sorry about that. Thank you for reaching out to me, and thank you for your continued support!”

 

 

Appropriately distant and polite, shows appreciation, but not promising anything personal; He concluded, and he sent the message.

He bitterly hoped GoldY was happy with themself, and wondered if this would be used as ammunition against him later. Not that it mattered much, there were way more examples of Viktor being nice to his fans then there were of Yuuri being nice to his. He posted regularly, acknowledged fanart and he even had that open Q&A once... Which Yuuri had chickened out of even trying to participate, as Vicchan or otherwise, it was too overwhelming, too much for his heart. When it came to public image, the winner was obviously Viktor. GoldY would have to be pretty stupid to fight him on that.

 

… Suddenly he realized something. He was the president of Viktor’s fanclub. Viktor was known for being polite to his fans. But he’s the fan club president and he had yet to talk to Viktor. Oh god, should he? Is that the standard? Goldy was talking to _him_. He didn’t know if any of the previous presidents had corresponded with the man himself.

Well, he vaguely remembered that when he was 15 the president of the fanclub _might_ have gotten a present from Viktor on her birthday, but he wasn’t sure. Did he really need to talk to Viktor? Can’t he just watch him from afar until he met him in competition?  The prospect of making any direct contact with his idol of- what, like 8 years?- was too daunting to even begin to wrap his mind around. No, there was no way he could talk to Viktor as Vicchan. He’d embarrass himself, almost certainly. And what if he accidentally let it slip who he was in real life? Viktor would never talk to him ever again. Not as club president, not as a skater… but he wondered if Viktor expected any correspondence from his fan club at all, or if he was disappointed that Vicchan hadn’t tried to reach him…

Yuuri stored that away in his brain to think more about later.

 

 

Viktor gasped _._ Yuuri messaged him back!

He knew it shouldn’t be this exciting, He was _Viktor Nikiforov_ , the top Figure skater in the world… But he was also a fan of Yuuri Katsuki. And he knew that it was rare for Katsuki to interact with Fans! And skating hierarchy be damned, he had a lot of respect for Katsuki  and was very eager to get to know him and he was very excited to be talking to him!

He decided he might not respond back to the message, after all, he didn’t want to make Yuuri feel like he had to participate in a conversation if he didn’t want to. Fanclubs weren’t required to be in contact with their celebrities, his own fanclub’s presidents hadn’t contact him that often. Vicchan certainly hadn’t, thank god, Viktor had no idea how to work around his ongoing argument with him, especially if he met Vicchan in real life, he didn’t think he could avoid giving him the stink-eye.

Viktor was just glad that Yuuri felt it was important enough to respond to him. Well, regardless of the speculation as to why Yuuri wasn’t very active on social media, it was his life, he got to decide how to live it.

Some attributed Yuuri’s apparent aversion to social media to the fact that computers actually weren’t all that common n Japan, most people just used their cell phone, so maybe he just wasn’t as tech savvy. Some attributed it to the speculation that Katsuki might have anxiety, given the episodes he’s said to have had sometimes before competitions that seem to be pretty consistent with descriptions of panic attacks. But a lot of people simply thought he was just busy, between college, skating, and everything else, he probably didn’t have much free time.

But Yuuri had set aside some time and put some thought into responding to GoldY. Viktor felt special. He sighed and returned to the couch, day effectively made.

He wondered if he could use Yuuri’s message to prove to everyone ( Vicchan, mostly, the stubborn bastard) that Yuuri didn’t dislike his fans or interacting with them, he just didn’t have the time. But, He knew Vicchan would most likely immediately shut him down by arguing that Viktor was way more consistently active on social media and polite to his fans than Katsuki. Seriously, Viktor didn’t want to make the excuse that Yuuri might have anxiety since he wasn’t really qualified to say anything on the subject, but he just wished people would be more considerate of Yuuri’s feelings. Regardless of whether he had anxiety, Viktor didn’t blame him for being bad with fans, it was a difficult part of being famous, and they shouldn’t shame Yuuri for not always being up for it.

 

* * *

 

 

However, he was also incredibly lucky, because a year later, Yuuri started to form a friendship with another skater who came to Detroit to train under Celestino. Viktor hadn’t heard of Phichit Chulanont, and at first, he was a little jealous of the Thai skater for getting to hang out with and talk to Yuuri casually all the time, getting close to him and becoming his friend without fear repercussions. But as Phichit and Yuuri became closer, Viktor grew more fond and thankful towards Phichit, slowly warming up to him, because while he didn’t blame Yuuri for not being very active online, he had no objections to more content involving his favored skater and a closer look into his life. And Phichit was very very active online. It was inevitable that Yuuri would end up online more after befriending Phichit. He was a skilled selfie-taker, and he was very friendly and open, and thank the lord,  _he liked to take pictures with and of his friends_ , which meant that Phichit’s instagram, snapchat, and twitter were soon a prime source of glimpses of Yuuri’s everyday routine.

Phichit posted a lot of content, but every day there was guaranteed to be something with Yuuri in it. Usually quite a few things, since Phichit formed a friendship with Yuuri off the rink as well within a couple months.

Sometimes Phichit just took pictures he thought looked cool or _#aethstetic_ and used Yuuri as a model and/or just happened to catch him in the background, or sometimes Phichit was giving some kind of update or news and Yuuri was also in the picture, sometimes Phichit deliberately had Yuuri pose with him for a selfie, Viktor loved it. Phichit had a sense of humor, and he seemed to also have a lot of respect for Yuuri, and he was a blessing to the Yuuri fandom.

Viktor didn’t know how much he needed candid photos of Yuuri until this happened.

Not that Viktor didn't appreciate Chulanont, but he did tend towards pictures with Yuuri in them.

He was proud of Phichit for making it into a sports magazine that got published worldwide for the first time in his career... but it was also a little distracting when in the photo; with Phichit holding the magazine up for the camera in a convenience store where it was sold, Yuuri was standing a ways away in the background, wearing a puffy winter coat, an adorable scarf wrapped around his face, gazing down at another magazine he had picked off the rack.

And the time Phichit and Yuuri stayed up together to cram for finals, Viktor felt bad for them, after all, they also had nationals to worry about, Viktor didn't go to college, but he'd balanced enough schoolwork in high school to have an idea of how shitty it must be to have to worry about exams while you also have an important competition coming up. But oh god. Phichit took the best photo Viktor had ever seen; Yuuri, head pillowed on his arm, sleeping soundly on top of an open book, almost drooling on a desk. there was a perfect contrast between the desperation implied by the knocked over empty coffee cups and cans of energy drinks strewn around the desk and the peaceful, soft expression on Yuuri's face. Was that creepy? It might be a little creepy. Viktor might be a little obsessive.

But he couldn’t help it, he had to let Phichit know what these photos meant to Yuuri’s fans.

 

 

 December 2013 :

**YUURI KATSUKI’s #1 FANS**

            @Phichit+chu I am so sorry you guys have to cram so hard! I hope you both do well on your exams, and at nationals! good luck! Phichit, on behalf of the Yuuri fandom.... I gotta thank you for blessing us with your fantastic photos of yuuris life. it means so much to us, THANK YOUUU!!! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

**Actual Hamster Phichit Chulanont**

             @Yuuri_Katsuki_Fanclub_Official you are welcome my children, I can’t help but take pictures of Yuuri, he’s a lil shy baby, but he’s super photogenic and handsome, isn’t he??? Yuuri is an excellent friend and I’m so glad to have him as my rinkmate. I know you katsuki lovers are a little starved for more Yuuri, I don’t blame you, I didn’t know how much katsuki I needed in my life until I met him. You can count on me to give you a little taste of the full Yuuri Katsuki Friendship Experience™ I’m here for you, boo. Thank you for your well wishes, we are dead because of exams,  also nationals are so soon, we gotta pull it together!  thank you for your support! <3

**YUURI KATSUKI’s #1 FANS**

            @Phichit+chu Wow!! Yuuri’s definitely v handsome, and we are super glad to have more photos of him thanks to you! But imho its fine that yuuri’s not super active online, he doesn’t have to post more than he wants to, it’s his life, he should be the one who decides how he lives it. But… it is very nice to have more quality Yuuri content, as long as he’s okay with you posting these pictures, I will continue to obsess over them >///<

**Actual Hamster Phichit Chulanont**

             @Yuuri_Katsuki_Fanclub_Official Aww, you’re such a sweetheart! Yuuri would appreciate how understanding you are, I’m sure! I show all the photos I take of Yuuri to him first before I post them, so he’s okay with the stuff I post, you don’t have to worry!

 

Viktor breathed a sigh of relief upon the affirmation that Yuuri was okay with Phichit posting these pictures. If he wasn’t, Viktor might have to abandon his new favorite source of Yuuri content in order to respect his privacy. He really didn’t want to have to do that, but he knew he should set a good example for his followers as the president of the fanclub, and he certainly didn’t like it that much when photos of _him_ found their way onto the net without him knowing, what sort of fan would he be to perpetuate that?

 

Similarly to the skater himself, the Phichit fandom was also pretty chill.

Phichit was very active with his own fandom, he held Q&As, sometimes visited forums, he followed his fan blogs, and kept up with his own fanclub, even read fanfic about himself and regularly showed off fanart people made of him. If only Yuuri were that active on the internet... But he was determined to respect Yuuri’s life and take what he got and be happy for it. if Yuuri wasn't that interested in social media then so be it!

Perhaps Phichit’s involvement with his own fandom might be the reason why they were so nice and laid back. They rarely ever got into fights or started arguments, they didn’t even have as much questionable fanart and fanfic. But maybe this was just because Phichit’s fandom knew he was keeping an eye on them, and they didn’t want to disappoint him.

Viktor wondered if taking similar action with his own fandom might improve things a little. But, realistically, he didn’t have the time to do that. Taking care of the fanclub took up a lot of time, and he was already pretty open on his official Viktor Nikiforov accounts. Plus arguing with people on the internet had become an outlet. It filled a void and if he no longer had an excuse to scream at people via the internet it would leave a hole in his life... which might not really be a good thing but what was he going to do about it? Probably nothing..

 

 

 

“Have you ever talked to the president of your fanclub?” Phichit asked.

They were taking a break from studying hanging out in one of the college lounge spaces. Phichit was smiling at his phone, swiping through twitter feed or something. Yuuri took a deep breath, staying resolutely calm and noncommittal.

“I mean, once, maybe twice?” He shrugged, “why?”

“They’re sort of adorable.” Phichit giggled. Yuuri looked suspiciously at the other skater,“Check it out” Phichit pushed his phone into Yuuri’s face. The sight of GoldY’s icon was a feeling associated with irritation, so Yuuri had to take a moment to really read the tweet and figure out how someone who wasn’t secretly locked in an ongoing war with their biggest fan would react to it.

“I mean, they seem thoughtful. They’re always like that.” He smiled slightly and shrugged.

“Yuuri,” Phichit whined “you should really appreciate your fans more! I mean, the head of the Church of Chulanont sends me memes like on the daily, so it’s not hard for _me._  They seem like a sweetheart! if this is your number one fan, then all your fans are probably super nice. Most celebrities would actually kill to have fans that are as respectful of their privacy and concerned about their wellbeing as this!”

“I’m not that big of a celebrity. And it’s not that I don’t appreciate them it’s just, I don’t have the time or the confidence to talk to them, you know? Plus…” Yuuri held back as best he could but if he had to keep listening to his best friend sing GoldY’s praises he needed him to know a few things. “I’ve seen the head of my fanclub get into some intense arguments with Viktor’s fans. Basically they trash talk Viktor and put me on a pedestal. It’s...”

“What? That debate is still even happening? I thought it died down!”

“Nope, and the head of my fanclub is one of the people perpetuating it still. So I dunno.” (Yuuri knew he was being a hypocrite, he would reflect on this later.)

“I’m sure they mean well! They’re probably just thinking that since your fanbase is smaller and newer than Viktor’s they should defend you, right?”

“But…”

“Yuuri they care about you.”

“that’s not gonna encourage me to talk to them.” He sighed.

“Mmm fine! If you’re not gonna go tell your fan what a sweetheart they are I’ll do it for you. But if I convert them to my church, well, that’s what happens.” Phichit shrugged, Yuuri startled.

“I mean, I do appreciate that they’re respectful of my privacy, I do! But, it could just be them that feels that way. I dunno, I’m not… I’m not good at talking to people. Everything intimidates me. You know this.”

Phichit stared at him, his arms fell into his lap with his phone face down, prompting Yuuri to unpack that statement with a steady gaze.

“I mean, GoldY’s always like, defending me against people who say shitty things you know?” He found himself saying “I’m thankful for it. To be honest, when I feel terrible sometimes I…” he stopped himself “I read the sorts of things they say when they fight with the people who talk trash. I’m really grateful. I really am. But they’ve built this idea of what they think I can be and what I can accomplish and how strong I am as a person. If I somehow shatter that illusion, if I let them down, then everything they’ve said about me is…” Yuuri gulped “It’s all bullshit. Total bullshit.”

Phichit blinked at him, absorbing Yuuri’s words.

“Well, you deserve your fanbase. and you deserve fans who respect you and will defend you. You don’t have to be more active if you really don’t want to. Sorry if I came across as trying to pressure you.” Phichit smiled lightly. “Why don’t we just take a selfie for them to thank them then?” Phichit picked up his phone again.

“Now? We probably look awful,”

“Too late! 3, 2,” Phichit raised his phone as quick as lightning, his somber expression vanished, serious air completely forgotten, the sudden gesture made Yuuri laugh, so the camera caught him like that. Then Phichit took a look at the photo before turning his phone to show Yuuri.

Yuuri snickered at it, yep, they looked terrible. Dark circles under their eyes, messy hair, Yuuri’s glasses were sliding down his nose, he was in the throes of laughter, and Phichit, who was usually the sort of person who looked good in every picture, looked less energetic than usual, but he’d still managed to get the lighting descent. Well… may as well throw in a picture that wasn’t so glamorous every once in a while. Knowing GoldY, they would probably lap it up anyway.

“Good?” Phichit looked up to gauge Yuuri’s reaction.

Yuuri chuckled and nodded.

 

 

**Actual Hamster Phichit Chulanont**

             @Yuuri_Katsuki_Fanclub_Official [IMAGE] Thank you for your kind words! Yuuri told me you’ve always been super supportive, so here is a small selfie of appreciation for you!!! Sorry we look like we’re living underground off of caffeine and trail mix. It’s because we are.

**YUURI KATSUKI’s #1 FANS**

            @Phichit+chu  I AM SO #BLESSED ?!!!!!!!!!!!!  ASDGFJEIASDLIJ THANK YOU

 

Of course, GoldY was ecstatic and was laughing deliriously for about 5 minutes before he recovered only to be put out of commission the same way again when he saw the photo a second time. Yuuri looked so tired and carefree, and even though he’d never heard Yuuri laugh, he looked so cute with a genuine smile...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *copius/ironic use of hashtags, circa 2013 
> 
> side note/ my headcanon abt my own fic:  
> in my head I read out viktor’s screenname as “goldie” and maybe “goldiekay” it could also be “gold-why-kay”or “gold-why”. But at least to me “GoldY” is read like “goldie”. to me it flows a lil better that way, but you do you  
> The Y is capitalized for _style_ , of course. because Viktors gotta be stylish all the time  
> whatever you read it as is fine by me lol
> 
> (sneaks u a peek)  
> in the next chapter!!:  
> " **Viktor Fanclub Official:**  
>  @Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub We’re the best of friends, you and I, for sure! >:D don’t you think of me as a friend?  
>  **KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**  
>  @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  Go to hell, asshole."
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!!!!!! I LoOOVE YOUUU!!!!!!! ( ; [] ; )


	3. Chapter 3

 Viktor didn't get much time to hang out with friends. He didn't have too many people he would really consider close friends in the first place, though he had many not-so-close friends and acquaintances. Christophe, he did consider a close friend though. They almost always hung out whenever they wound up in the same city, even if they just chatted before a competition.

Christophe's a close enough friend that they can both talk loudly for a long time and joke around and also hang around lazily, flipping through their phones and have disparate relaxed conversations about whatever they see online. 

 

Chris chuckled from his spot on the couch, not  looking up from his phone “Have you looked at your fanclub much?”

Viktor’s breath nearly stopped. But he kept up the illusion that he hadn’t almost just had a heart attack. Even the mention of the word ‘fanclub’ was dangerous territory.

“Not that much. Why?”

“It’s just… the club president...”

Every muscle in Viktor’s body nearly tore he tensed so hard. He had to fight against the urge to stop breathing, or look panicked at all.

“He… he’s an interesting person.” Chris continued with a bemused smirk.

“Oh? I haven’t heard from him..." Viktor tilted his head in acted curiosity.

“I mean, he seems to get into a lot of arguments defending you, especially with the leader of Katsuki’s fanclub.”

Viktor nervously averted his eyes to curse inwardly.

“Really? I knew there was some kind of fight, but I never knew what about.”

Fuck.

“Yeah. You should read through their conversations when you have the time. They are pretty interesting.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, to be honest I kind of ship them.” At that Viktor looked up at his friend and gave him a confused expression. Ship… them? “What? Our fans ship skaters, whats wrong with shipping our fans?” Chris just smiled coolly.

“But, why?”

What about his interactions with Vicchan would even _give_ people that idea…?

“What do you mean?”

“You just said they argue a lot.”

“Oh they do. But they almost fight like a married couple. Its like… they’re always on the same wavelength. They seem to like fighting with each other more than anyone else, they totally know what to say to get under each other’s skins… It’s a little adorable.” Chris chuckled. “You should really read their conversations,”

Viktor just shrugged as if he would consider it later, and pretended to go back to his phone.

Ship them?

Married couple?

Adorable?

No. Chris clearly had the wrong idea.

Viktor was currently hung up on… well, someone else. Someone Vicchan hated with a passion. Besides, Vicchan was probably also enamored with his own…

Oh. Vicchan had a (celebrity) crush on him; Viktor Nikiforov, that is.

He forgot about that. But, that had nothing to do with Vicchan’s interactions with him as GoldY.

Did he like fighting with Vicchan more than other people?

Viktor found that question hard to answer, oddly. The easy answer should be ‘no’. but… somehow that didn’t feel honest. did he enjoy arguing with Vicchan? Maybe? At this point it had kind of become routine.

If he stopped arguing with Vicchan, if Vicchan quit or disappeared would he miss this?

He sighed. Because honestly, yeah he would. Few things could get Viktor riled up anymore. Vicchan’s messages were definitely an emotional high point of his routine.

 

 

October 2014:

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   ohohoh, now you’ve done it bitch. You think your high and mighty just because Viktor’s been in the sport for longer??? What even are you trying to argue? Do your fucking research m8, Yuuri didn’t start skating COMPETATIVELY until pretty late in the game BUT he’d actually been skating for DAMN NEAR HIS WHOLE LIFE he was also a ballet prodigy. Okukawa is a family friend and acted as a coach early in his career and taught him to dance pretty much since he could speak, and he’s said MULTIPLE[link] TIMES[link] IN[link] INTERVEIWS [link]  that he spent almost ALL of his free time skating since he was like 4-5[link]. it doesn’t even matter how long Viktor’s been doing it for, Yuuri does it better ;P

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub  * you’re. nice job missing the point of what I was even saying dickweed. I know you Yuuri ppl think it’s harsh and all, but like we all know Katsuki couldn’t handle success, he can barely handle himself with fans as it is smh He’ll never make it to where Viktor is if he continues to be an emotional wreck.  Yuuri’s claims that he skated since he was little doesn’t prove anything??? “skating in his free time” could mean literally anything, Viktor on the other hand, if YOU would do your “fucking research” , started doing kids competitions as young as 7 source >[link]. Viktor has been practicing competitive skating and dancing with competitive jumps and skating to meet competitive standards since he was a kid. What does Yuuri mean by “skating in his free time”? he could mean skating circles or just taking regular skating classes???? It’s no wonder he’s so garbage when it comes to anything actually challenging with skating if he only started doing jumps when he was 11 lol source>[link]

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   First of all, how DARE you. If you said that shit to my face I would toss you out the fucking window. Yuuri can handle himself in front of fans, he’s perfectly capable of “handing fame”.  also what are you gonna do if it turns out Yuuri really actually has anxiety?? And that’s why he gets flustered during interviews. If you’d paid attention you’d know that’s one theory as to why he’s not so open about his personal life. Degrading Yuuri for things he cant really control is on a whole other level from just bashing ppl on the internet, seriously keep that shit up and I might actually block you. It’s not his fault. and his nervousness is not gonna stop him from reaching Viktor’s level and surpassing him, he’s capable of much more than him, and he can cope just fine, sit the fuck down.

 **No hating only skating** @salmonandwitches98

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial @Katsuki_Yuuri_Official_fanclub  yknow sometimes I cant tell if you two are like… the worst of enemies or the best friends ever. Like you argue all the time, but I seriously cannot remember either of you getting this into a Nikiforov Vs Katsuki argument with literally anyone else. Maybe you two should hang out? who knows...

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @salmonandwitches98 @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  I appreciate the sentiment. But… Ew. No. I’m not being friends with anyone who’s this rude to Yuuri.

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub  Awww come on, we’ve been through so much together!! Remember when Viktor beat Katsuki at SA and was also objectively better than Katsuki in pretty much every way? From presentation to technical elements to public image… smh

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   shut your mouth shitnose, don’t you even make me get out all my fucking recipts and shit I gotta say. If you want me to get started, I can list every way Yuuri is better than Nikiforov starting with his hair and ending with Fuck You.

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub   We’re the best of friends, you and I, for sure! >:D don’t you think of me as a friend?

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   Go to hell, asshole.

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub   [link]

 

 

 

Viktor sneered and hovered over the link. Vicchan had been awfully close to crossing the line from criticizing Yuuri more harshly than was necessary (like usual) to saying he would never make it big because he had anxiety (too far). If that was really what Vicchan believed he wanted nothing more to do with him, honestly.

That link might lead him to malware, a screamer, something illegal, something like gore or porn or gore-porn. This was the internet, _anything was possible._

But still, he clicked on the link; Vicchan wouldn’t do that.

It was just a jpeg, a shitty compressed clipart of a heart with the words “ _best friends_ ” inside it in bold letters in some trashy font…

Pft…

Viktor rolled his eyes.

Vicchan had somehow devolved into joking around. That was new. Viktor still had more he wanted to say, but this sort of lazy message seemed to indicate that Vicchan was tired, so whatever, he’d let it be. Viktor should probably sleep too.

 If Vicchan was tired maybe it was late at night for him too. So was he in Europe? Russia? His page said he spoke English and Japanese… so maybe in the UK? Or something like that…

Viktor sighed.

Vicchan seemed a little off today in general. He didn’t seem to be as into it as usual. It was a little difficult to get genuinely riled up like that, he’d tried to come across as angry as he usually did to no avail, he didn't have it in him to be as brutal as usual if Vicchan wasn't giving it his all. Vicchan simply didn’t seem to have his usual energy, even though he responded to GoldY’s messages. Why was Vicchan so out of it? 

Was he okay?

Viktor rolled over in bed, he dropped his phone on the mattress and sighed. He didn’t actually know that much about Vicchan as a person, Viktor didn’t know if he had any reason to be worried about Vicchan’s condition.

“Do your fucking research” he’d said. 

Branching out more on the internet had taught him that sometimes people _needed_ help but couldn’t say it.

He might be able to dig up something to see if Vicchan had any history of mental health issues or something…

He knew Vicchan had been a fan for a long time, longer than the Katsuki fandom was even a thing, but he had no idea what Vicchan’s early days in the skating fandom were like. But, digging up old forum posts, or old iterations of the blogs via the wayback machine felt like an invasion of privacy and it would take way too long.

Would it be weird for him to contact the other board members of the Viktor fanclub to make sure Vicchan was okay?

Yes, they would think it was weird, they would think Viktor was trying to dig up dirt or otherwise bother him.

Still…

“Don’t you think of me as a friend?” he’d said.

 

Didn’t he?

 

 

 

Yuuri was a little scared.

He knew it was too much to talk about ‘Yuuri’s’ nervousness with GoldY, but he’d had a rough week, he wasn’t exactly making the best decisions right now.

He might cry. Just a little. But he was too sleepy right now.

He turned over and hugged his pillow close. He hadn’t gotten _any_ sleep last night, despite his best efforts his homework technically wasn't 100% done, but he was past the point of being able to focus on it. the sight of the sunrise pushed him into despair, he didn't even really know what to do about it.

He realized the reason he liked talking with GoldY a while ago, or rather, one of the reasons, was because he could let out his pent up frustration. But… another thing was that anxiety caused him to over-analyze conversations and reverse the meanings. So… conversations that were actually polite and well-meaning often felt like they were concealing annoyance, hatred, anger. GoldY's hatred of Yuuri was front and center. But once Yuuri went back and re-read through the conversation, disconnected from it, it was all GoldY defending him. That was a pleasant feeling, to anxiously reanalyze an angry conversation to realize it was full of praise and sympathy for Yuuri Katsuki, the figure skater and GoldY wouldn’t try to protect Vicchan from his feelings by concealing them in order to make him feel better. GoldY openly called him an asshole.

Yuuri laughed into the cold empty morning. He felt stupid, and it was sort of fucked up that he’d constructed this idea of his worst enemy also somehow being his friend. But he’d gotten scared when GoldY threatened to block him, he just hoped GoldY wouldn’t actually do it…

If he lost his connection, if GoldY blocked him, what would he do?

‘Cut it out’, the voice in his head that Phichit and the therapist had told him to listen to more said, ‘you’ve had a bad week, now’s not a good time to think about this stuff’.

Isn’t it though?

His phone vibrated. He lazily picked it up, a text from the Vice President. He swiped into his phone.

“Hey, someone just tipped me off that you might be having a rough time, they were a little worried you might not be feeling okay rn. Is everything alright?”

Yuuri blinked at the message.

“I’m okay, I just need some sleep and some time alone. Bad week with school, that’s all.” He replied. But…

“Who tipped you off?” he asked through another text

“They told me not to say”

…

Yuuri chuckled sleepily. He had some idea of who it was. Someone who was probably disappointed he’d left them hanging on twitter because he couldn’t bring himself to come up with a good comeback anymore.

‘Next time, when I’m feeling better, I’ll get back at you,’ He promised silently.

Yuuri tried to fall asleep, it was embarrassing, but the easiest way for him to relax was to imagine the pillow he was curled around was the warm body of the Russian figure skater his not-friend insisted wasn’t as good as he was. His lips rested on the pillow, unconsciously kissing the imaginary man’s chest.

GoldY would say he was pathetic. He smiled. But then GoldY was just as bad, weren’t they?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support!!! < you guys help keep me goin!!!
> 
>  
> 
> hmm... as for next chapter...  
> well i've written a bit of a thing i may use as the next chapter  
> buuut here's a tiny lil sneaky peek!
> 
> " ‘When Yuuri Katsuki turns around, he’s expecting to see World Champion and playboy Viktor Nikiforov. Act like it.’ Viktor reminded himself. He fixed his posture and gave a sly, confident smile to the timid skater that turned to face him.  
> “What?” Yuuri asked. "
> 
> ;3c


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, remember how in the last chapter there was an offhanded remark about how viktor and yuuri were both at skate america at one point?  
> :D

Viktor couldn’t stop smiling. He was trying very hard not to laugh, like this was all some huge inside joke only he knew about. Well, it was true that he was hiding a secret. Ever since the GPX assignments came out he’s been waiting for Skate America. He’s been waiting for this.

Yuuri was just down the hall. If Viktor called out to him Yuuri might hear it. Viktor could walk up to Yuuri and talk to him, theoretically.

He snuck a quick glance at the target of his affection.

Dark hair pushed back like it always was for competitions, cute face, modest glasses (Yuuri apparently didn’t like wearing contacts, according to interviews he found them distracting, even when skating he didn’t wear them) sweet, brown eyes and nervous body language, fidgeting, looking around, stretching and warming up with everyone else.

He’s here.

Not that Viktor could go up and talk to him. It would be weird to single out Yuuri without any sort of precedent, especially when other skaters and coaches were sharing the hallway, and there was a small group of reporters and cameramen watching who would certainly see this and try to decipher his actions.

But… he could look at Yuuri in person from afar, just a little. Maybe at the banquet he could chat with him, briefly.

Would asking for a photo together be too obvious? Probably.

But Katsuki was also _his_ fan, he knew, so maybe he could offer a photo under the precedent that he assumed Yuuri might want a photo with him? Maybe.

Katsuki was a fan of his, but Yuuri hadn’t made any attempts to talk to him, ask for a autograph or a photo or anything… in fact Yuuri almost seemed to be avoiding looking at him, headphones in, turned away, averting his eyes. Surely he knew Viktor was _there_. But whatever, that was fine. He was determined to not pressure him to do anything he didn’t want to, the last thing he wanted was to scare the younger skater away or make him feel nervous or uncomfortable.

 

 

 

_He’s here._

Oh god. Oh god. _Oh god. He's HERE._

What on earth does one do in this situation?

Yuuri’s idol and celebrity crush since he was roughly twelve was standing just down the hall, maybe like five to ten meters away. Stretching, normally, as if this was just something that happened every day, for him maybe it was… Viktor was probably expecting to make quick work of the competition here, and most likely those expectations would be satisfied. But for Yuuri he would be on the ice with _Viktor Nikiforov_. Well, not literally on the ice with Viktor, they were in different warm-up groups and their programs were not even remotely near each other but he’d be up against _Nikiforov himself_.

But…

It wasn’t quite what he wanted it to be. It was still like most of the other opportunities he'd gotten to meet Viktor...

Sure he would be facing off against Viktor, but he’d always imagined that when he met Viktor he could do it as an equal. He was certainly not on equal ground with Viktor now. Viktor was now reigning world champion three years running and Yuuri had never even made it to the GPF! There was no way Yuuri could catch up. So he was determined to do his best to forget Nikiforov was even there. He’d introduce himself properly once he and the Russian legend were on marginally equal ground.

But _oh god,_ it was really hard to ignore. Try as he may he could not stop thinking about him.

This would fuck him up on the ice. The entire time he was skating, he was going to be distracted just wondering if Viktor was watching or not, what Viktor might think about him, what Viktor would think about his skating, if Viktor even cared at all or had any idea who Yuuri was.

What should he do in this situation? Probably not fall into a downwards spiral of unending questions and nightmare scenarios. But that was certainly where he was headed.

 

 

On the way to the bathroom it _happened_.

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly Viktor nearly ran into someone who was walking down the hallway as he was about to round the corner.  He took a step back just in time and started to apologize.

“Oh, I’m—“

His brain froze at the sight of a head of soft black hair and brown eyes behind blue frames. His apology halted on his tongue. He looked over the other skater for a second in silence. Yuuri’s beautiful, warm eyes were looking up at Viktor with an unreadable, almost neutral, expression that seemed to be concealing mild shock. Viktor supposed it wasn’t normal to just stare at someone after nearly bowling them over, but he was so fascinated with Katsuki that he couldn’t bring himself to tear his eyes away. He took a second to take in the rapidly darkening pink of Yuuri’s features as his face morphed into something that looked like complete and utter terror.

Yuuri gasped and stepped back, his arms snapping to his sides and his eyes darting around rapidly. He stammered and stuttered, his cheeks dyed a delicious red. Oh he’s so cute. Damnit _. He’s cute when he’s embarrassed._

“O-oh my god! I’m so sorry! I’ll just—“ Then Katsuki turned away and looked as if he was about to sprint down the hall in the other direction.

“Wait!” Viktor yelled before he could stop himself.

And to his surprise Katsuki did. He froze nearly mid-step a meter into his sprint, trembling in his shoes.

What was Viktor even supposed to say?

‘I’m actually a huge fan’ ‘hey lets hang out sometime’ ‘I’ve actually spoken to you before under a different name’ ‘I’m sorry I start shit on the internet, I swear it’s for your own good’ ‘I think you’re really sweet and I want to help you and protect you’ ‘I’m your biggest fan’ ‘I idolize you probably more than you idolize me’ 'please don't be afraid of me'

“Ganba.” He said,

‘When Yuuri Katsuki turns around, he’s expecting to see World Champion and playboy Viktor Nikiforov. Act like it.’ Viktor reminded himself. He fixed his posture and gave a sly smile to the timid skater that turned to face him.

“What?” Yuuri asked.

“Good luck. Did I say it wrong?” Viktor raised an eyebrow.

“No...”

“Oh, and there was something else I wanted to say to you.” Viktor tried to be subtle as he took a deep breath and stepped a bit closer to Katsuki, who looked like he was about to collapse on the spot. So cute. ‘Okay! Casual. Friendly. Don’t scare him.’  He put forth the most controlled grin he could. “Apparently my fans are still being rude about you. I just wanted you to know I don’t agree with any of those things, I think you’re a fine skater. I apologize on their behalf.” He felt like he was on a tightrope.

“You think I’m… huh? You know who I am?” Yuuri’s eyes widened, he looked innocently up at Viktor. Viktor cringed. Shit. Was he supposed to be that clueless? Was he not supposed to even know who Yuuri was? Had Katsuki figured him out? “I- I mean, sorry!” Yuuri continued “I-- me too! I don’t agree with any of the rude stuff my fans say about you either. I really um- I tried to get them to stop but…”

Viktor chuckled. Ahh, Yuuri was a much better person than him…

“It’s fine, it’s the internet, so it’s pretty much unavoidable.”

“Y-yeah…” Yuuri smiled nervously. Viktor’s breath nearly left him. Oh god He’s even cuter when he smiles. Viktor had to fight with the urge to hug him.

“Anyway, good luck with your Short Program. I’ll make sure to watch.” Viktor gave Yuuri a polite wave before he turned to leave.

“D-davai.” Yuuri said, barely above a mumble, just loud enough for Viktor to hear. If Viktor were at home alone he would collapse on the floor and yell into his knees. He failed to suppress a delighted grin when he looked to his crush. “Y-you too, good luck with your Short Program too. Um… bye…” Yuuri pivoted around on his heel and dashed around the corner again.

Oh, Viktor was _truly_ blessed. He sighed, trying not to swoon.

He almost wanted to run after him again. The real deal was better than photos over the internet. But talking with Yuuri for all of one minute had him so riled up he wanted to _run,_ anywhere, somewhere, and just tell someone. Talk to someone about how Yuuri is so cute and nice and precious and… and then he would devolve into keysmashes and incomprehensible laughing.

But this was a secret. He had to keep this a secret. What was the best way to release this excitement? Probably skating.

Well. What would you know? That’s exactly what he was here to do!

 

* * *

 

October 2014:

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

VIDEO OF VIKTOR’S NEW SP AT SKATE AMERICA 2014 [link]  PLEASE CHECK IT OUT IT’S SO WORTH IT

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

It’s so impressive!!!!!!!!! He’s so beautiful and elegant… :L His theme this year is “desire”… he’s certainly nailing it, don’t you think?? He’s even more expressive and emotional in this performance! At least compared to the first event from previous seasons. This program is quite different from his other choreography work. I think this vicious, energetic, invigorating style really suits him nicely! Veeery nicely! (o q o)

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

i wonder how all those people who were so worried and pessemistic when viktor said he'd be doing something different this season feel now?? have moire faith in his talent >_< ! i won't say i like this performace better than anything else he's done, i could never ever pick a favorite routine when it comes to viktor, i love all of them equally. but this one is like, intrinsically special, it pulls you in, doesnt it?? *drools...

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

Also!!!! Some people were freaking out that he flubbed the quad flip? but guys, this is the first event of the season, we all know Viktor aims to peak at more important competitions, just because he flubbed his signature move one time doesn’t mean he’s going downhill, if anything he’s only going to get better from here!

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

              Also also! Heres an interview he did right after the SP! [link] There’s no translation yet, I’ll post it when I find one!!!… I don’t know enough Russian to understand it ; A ;  And for those of you who are a little behind, here’s the interview he did about his programs for this season last month! [link] translation: [link] please watch it!!!

 

"Yuuri, get off your phone!"

Yuuri instinctively tilted his phone towards himself to hide the screen, a long practiced move, he looked up at Celestino.

"Who are you texting? Phichit?"

"Yeah! I just... I needed to geek out about Viktor's performance is all." he admitted.

Celestino raised an eyebrow at him.

"Just make sure you get all your stretches in, okay? Do whatever you need to calm down."

Yuuri nodded, and tried to get in all the stretches he could while also being on his phone. He should text Phichit to actually geek out about Viktor's performance to cover his tracks... Then again thinking about Viktor... It just made him excited and nervous. That conversation replayed over and over and over in his head. He could hardly believe it actually happened, but he was sure if he had dreamed it he would have come up with something more suave to say than just stammering and sweating profusely. Some part of him wondered if he was going to be okay, and every other part of him was running in every direction... 

* * *

 

 

When Yuuri stepped on the ice his mind was still racing. He could probably have done a lap around the rink to hype up the crowd and get a feel for the ice, but he was trying so hard to focus on his routine that he just went straight to the middle, he only gave a brief wave to the cheers he was met with from every angle.

He had a few seconds before he had to start, while the announcers said his name and the name of his short program.

He was nervous.

His blood was rushing through his ears.

'Where is he?'

Yuuri’s eyes unconsciously darted around the rink and settled on the man standing at the rink side. He couldn’t really see him that well, his face was indistinguishable, he barely registered exactly _who_ he was staring at, but that was where he wanted to look. 

 _Viktor Nikiforov_ gave him a thumbs up _…_ And then the music began.

And the next couple minutes were kind of a blur.

 

 

He resurfaced in his ending pose, lungs heaving and muscles aching, loud applause resounded around him.

It was only then that he could reflect on what happened, in the few seconds he had to catch his breath.

Looking back on it he remembered only the sound of his short program's music, occasionally his immersion had faded around the time a jump happened.  But even the jumps he didn’t think much about, and to his memory, he’d only flubbed two. One he had over-rotated, one he fell, then got back up with practiced speed.  So much for the triple axel, but he landed the quad toe loop just fine, if a little wobbly, and he’d never landed it in competition before!

_It worked out!_

He smiled, arms outstretched to receive the audience’s roaring applause.

He blinked for a second to search for Viktor and gauge his reaction, but he couldn’t find him, and he couldn’t really remember where Viktor had been standing in the first place. He pushed off towards the rink exit, towards the kiss and cry where Celestino was waiting with his glasses. he slowed down as one of the kids who’d gone out on the ice to pick up gifts from fans handed him a plush dog. He gripped it and smiled, first at the kid and then to the little dog.

“Yuuri! That was probably the best I’ve ever seen you perform in a competition!! Great job!!” Celestino clapped him on the back cheerfully as Yuuri put on his guards before taking his glasses.

Yuuri just smiled, clutched the gift and walked to the kiss and cry with a breathless, incredible feeling bubbling in his chest.

 

 

October 2014:

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            YUURIS SHORTPROGRAM WAS SO GOOD DFNAKF IM DYIN  hE NAILED THE 4TL !!!!!  iM SO  HAPPY HE DID IT!!!! AAAAA  HES FINALLY SKATING IN COMPETITIONS MORE LIKE HOW HE DOES DURING EXHIBITIONS BUT this was EveN BETTER

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            OK screaming (mostly) over now… the scores haven’t even been announced But he has to have beaten his personal best!!! Let’s hope he gets first place!! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و

 

 

Internal screaming out of his system, Viktor peeked back into the rink to hear the score announcement.

 

 

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            Skate America 2014 Men’s Singles Short Program current scores: [link] I’m so mad, I cant believe he’s in second ;m;  GUH whatever, Yuuri will always be first in my heart <3

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub   oh, really? At least the one who’s first in my heart is also first on the scoreboard ~  weirdo…

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   uggh go away! I’m having a moment! Let me celebrate katsuki’s performance! given how much his personal best just jumped up, it’s worth celebration! I think we can expect great stuff from him tomorrow and for the rest of this season! <3

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub  I dunno about that

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial   ??????

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

@Yuuri_Katsuki_Official_Fanclub  I mean, this is the first time we've confirmed he and Viktor have interacted, and for some reason he did better than expected??? Maybe that photo that’s been floating around is Viktor giving him advice?? Seems really weird. this is probably a fluke. don’t get your hopes up too much for tomorrow!  Viktor will crush him >:)

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial I notice you're not denying yuuri did well tho~! lol you've come a long way!

 

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            It all comes down to the free skate tomorrow anyway! Looking forward to it!

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            Also what’s this about a photo? ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayy!!  
> I'm posting a little early because i felt like it, dammit.
> 
> THank you so much for reading!!!!!! i'm so glad people are enjoying this ; w ; 
> 
> i'm going to be sticking to this story thread for a couple chapters!  
> what happens next time?  
> hmmm... welll 
> 
> ">What’s their ship name guys? VikYuu?  
> I feel like we would be doing the sport of figure skating a disservice if we didn’t call this ship Victuuri  
> I SECOND VICTUURI  
> >VIKTUURI GOOD SHIT.  
> >Holy balls. Their names fit together into “victory”… this might actually be a match made in heaven... Why didn’t we think of this before???"
> 
> \\( ' w ')/


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first bit of the chapter is meant to be a forum, which was difficult to figure out how to format to be understandable,  
> every new line indicates a different user, every indented line is a reply

October 2014 - new thread  
**ORIGINAL POST:**

 **[Image]**  
GUYS HOLY FUCK Am I going crazy or are Yuuri Katsuki and Viktor Nikiforov chatting it up?? I just found this photo, I don’t know who took it, but that’s totally them isnt it?!

>THE RIVALRY BEGINS >:D

>Yuuri is finally getting to talk to his idol <3 I’m so proud of him!!! We’re all rooting for you katsubaby you can beat him!

         I dunno about that, Katsuki isn’t quite on Viktor’s level yet. Maybe next year? :)

                    Feels kinda dumb to start comparing who’s better on a picture of them having a friendly conversation (at least it looks like it.)

>… yo okay now that I’m seeing them next to each other they actually look really good together. Like the height difference, the contrasting hair colors… I ship it

         What? They’re just talking. We don’t even know what they are talking about

                     Ew no don’t ship them, their rivals!! >:(

                              *They’re

>it’s pretty surprising to see these two talking, I didn’t know they knew each other at all lol

>Hmm… I hateship it? How do you say you want them to hate-fuck? >:)

>Have they ever talked IRL before? at least to our knowledge? I dunno but I like this, I want them to be friends :)

         Maybe if these two become friends, their fanbases will chill the fuck out so yeah I agree lol

>D’aaww look at Yuuri he’s so smol and precious

>I don’t know why everyone’s freaking out. Like did you really think that just because their fandoms are constantly at war that they would also be at each other’s throats irl? Doesn’t Katsuki attribute Viktor as being his role model? Nah, I can totally see them being friends

> **[image] [image]** *ZOOMS AND ENHANCES well, if I may say so myself, I’m no expert picture-person, but they are in a hallway with fluorescent lighting by the looks of it. Despite the cold color of the lighting we have figure A: pink hue around Yuuri’s cheeks. Okay no biggie, Viktor is Yuuri’s idol, of course he’s a little embarrassed by meeting his role model, Yuuri's known to get flustered easily in the first place. However figure B: VIKTOR it’s slight but his face does look a little redder here than it does in other photos, and as I said, this is cold lighting so? Why would he be blushin?

           Guys no, come on, there’s nothing romantic between them … right?

           wow, that's a really impressive stretch my dude

>the nature of this interaction is unclear, but i choose to interpret it as passive-agressive banter. good day

> **[image]**  (we need to go DEEPER) WAIT HOLD UP OKAY AM I GOING CRAZY OR ARE VIKTOR’s EYES DARKER THAN USUAL IN THIS PHOTO. Don’t tell me. Don’t even fuckign joke. If his pupils are dilated I am going to sell my first born

            Holy shit, wait are we actually getting shipping fuel out of this?

            Nah you’re imagining it, there’s no way

            that doesnt mean anything oh my god

            Pupils dilated what? what does that mean?

                       it’s a biology thing, pupils become dilated in low light… or when you look at someone you are attracted to( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

            oh my god. This is actually happening. 0 to 100 real quick.

            You guys are being crazy… they’re just talking omfg

> **[image]**  *Zooms and enhances again. Are his pupils dilated? Maybe? The photo quality isn’t good enough to see.

> I’ve heard that viktor apparently threw a gift for yuuri onto the rink after the short program… just… thought I’d put that out there. Don’t know if that’s true, but he was definitely watching from the rinkside. lets face it guys this is happening I fucking ship it.

             wait really? holy fuck

             Pics or it didn’t happen -_-

            I don’t think that’s true? I’ve seen Viktor watching katsuki in some of the footage from his performance but I didn’t see him throw any gifts. we would definitely notice if he had, right?

>What’s their ship name guys? VikYuu?

            I feel like we would be doing the sport of figure skating a disservice if we didn’t call this ship Victuuri

                        I SECOND VICTUURI

>VIKTUURI GOOD SHIT.

>Holy balls. Their names fit together into “victory”… this might actually be a match made in heaven? Why didn’t we think of this before???

             I did. But no one listened because they were too busy fighting over who was better. >:O I’ve been shipping them from the beginning!!

>oh no... i knew this would happen. just don't bug them about it okay?? i've already seen ppl talking about this on twitter and tumblr...

             IT BEGINS!!!!

 

 

 

**Phichit**

  
lowkey everyone is freaking the fuck out  
did you meet viktor or something and not tell me?? If you did im gonna be pissed

  
you are going to be pissed because umm … soRT OF…???

  
WAIT REALLY TELL ME ALL AOBOUT IT AAA

  
I LITERALLY RAN INTO HIM ON MY WAY TO THE BATHROOM :’O

  
YOU TALKED TO HIM??

  
AHHHH HE KNOWS WHO I AM HE SAID IM A DECENT SKATER I WILL NEVER STOP CRYING

  
WHAT FTHE FU

  
HE APOLOGIZED FOR HIS FANS BEING RUDE ABOUT ME ONLINE.  
HE SAID“GANBA”!!TO ME!!! AND I WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.  
HES SO NICE IN PERSON IM DEAD.  
I THINK THAT’S WHY I DID SO WELL WITH THE SP

  
Viktor blessed you with his talent!! :O

  
But really like… I think talking to him was so scary and overwhelming but it made me so happy, and I saw he was really actually watching my sp and I short circuited… like that broke me, so I wasn’t overthinking things while I was skating and that’s why I did well?

  
ohhhhh… That’s adorable yuuri.

  
adorable?? It’s sort of scary. I don’t think I can recreate that :( 

  
just talk to viktor again before your fs :D

  
PHichit I can barely interact with servers at a restaurant im not even gonna try to initiate a conversation with him.  
Besides its sort of weird. if I need viktor to succeed I wont be able to advance at all.

  
whatever works for you, bud  
have you seen all the fanart ppl have been making of you and viktor?

  
fanart?

 

 

Yuuri saved _another_ photo to his phone.

He’d promised himself he’d stop and go to bed hours ago but _oh my god_.

He hadn’t even imagined how invigorating it would be to have people on the internet draw him and Viktor Nikiforov making heart eyes at each other and kissing and _being lovers_ until a few hours ago. The thought had never even crossed his mind. And holy fuck it was _a feeling_. Not really a feeling he could place, but a very intense feeling.

It was like the people of the internet had reached into the depths of his mind and saw the deepest, sappiest, and most cheesy fantasies he’d had about his idol and decided to put them on paper with beautiful artful finesse and handed them back to him. It was beautiful and slightly horrifying.

He’d discovered that a photo had been taken of his and Viktor’s awkward and completely nerve wracking conversation just before the SP had been uploaded to the internet pretty much right after the short program ended when he checked the internet to gauge the reaction to his performance. And of course the skating fandom took the photo and ran with it. Within a day or two Viktuuri had become more of a widespread thing. At first he panicked. This could fuck up whatever impression he’d left, and Viktor seemed to at least have a good opinion of Yuuri, but this might ruin it. But then since then he’d been drowning out his fears and sorrows with the influx of fanart depicting his wildest dreams coming true, and even some things he hadn’t dreamed of… but he wished he had.

He was distantly aware that the VP had texted him a while ago saying that everyone was freaking out and he should probably make some kind of announcement or give his thoughts , but Yuuri just said that he couldn’t make any comments right now and he’d be MIA for a little while.

Okay that was a lie- it was less that he was MIA and more that he wanted to consume every single scrap of viktuuri fanwork until he’d seen everything. His unspoken ship, his secret crush, it was _real_.

He zoomed in on a particularly good fanart of himself and Viktor holding hands and looking happy. He felt his cheeks flush but he didn’t stop himself from smiling and letting out a sigh of… contentment? Nervousness? Embarrassment? Happiness? Something. He was feeling a lot of things at the moment.

This was childish and he knew it. He had the _free skate tomorrow_ , he needed _sleep_...

But _oh my GOD._

He encountered a fanart depicting an ‘alternate version’ of the actual photo, wherein Viktor had Yuuri pinned against the wall and was kissing him passionately- and any and all obligations were completely forgotten.

He knew he would regret it in the morning.

He knew he would regret it during his FS.

But right now he just didn’t want to think about it.

 

 

 

**Phichit**

I messed up

Yuuri you did fine, and you still got your high score on the sp!!

your total isn’t that bad, even if your free skate didn’t go as well as you wanted.

You can still make it bud! We’re still supporting you through and through!

Thank you

Yuuri?

Ciao ciao texted me saying he cant find you. you okay?

I need to be alone

K I’ll let him know

I hope you feel better soon okay :’’’(

 

Viktor had winced at every one of Yuuri’s falls on the ice. He was glad he hadn’t watched from the rink side where people might have spotted him, he was a little more invested in the performance than one would be just watching a fellow competitor…

He just hoped Yuuri was okay after he tumbled on that hydroblade, it seemed like he might have torn his costume a little, hopefully he wasn’t hurt. But... he hadn’t seen Yuuri since his performance, and at the kiss and cry, Yuuri just looked like he’d expected it, but he hadn't sat with the other skaters, he just left. Yuuri's concerning behavior was putting Viktor on edge too. He needed to calm down before he had to go up, which thankfully wouldn’t happen for a while, and luckily he managed to find a secluded area of the rink, some of the extended office areas or part of the gym that was in the same building, it was blocked off from the public…

And slumped against the wall around the corner in an empty hallway was Yuuri.

Viktor immediately reversed and hid behind the wall, making as little noise as possible. He held his breath. Yuuri was crying.

He could tell pretty much immediately just from how Yuuri was positioned. But he also heard his sniffling and sobbing.

Every fiber of Viktor’s being was screaming at him to go over there and hug him. Hold him and kiss him until he stops crying.

Damnit. Viktor had always been garbage at this. Every time a competitor started tearing up in front of him Viktor just froze and panicked. And this was the one competitor he wanted to help _the most_ but try as he may he couldn’t think of a single way he could approach Yuuri and try to calm him down without potentially freaking him out and making the situation worse. He wanted to help, he wanted so badly to help, but he knew if he did he would probably mess up so badly Yuuri wouldn’t want to talk to him again.

Viktor was probably about the last person Yuuri wanted to see right about now in the first place. He would probably want to talk to someone familiar, not some stranger he only knows from TV. Should he go get Celestino?

No, maybe not, maybe he just needed to be left alone. At least he hoped that was the case because leaving him alone was less risky. And if he told Celestino, Yuuri would find out Viktor had seen him cry.

There wasn’t anything Viktor could do…

Viktor admitted defeat, and quietly sneaked back to the rink to give Yuuri space.

There wasn’t anything Viktor could do…

 

 

October 2014:

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

See? I told you all that the sp was a fluke for katsuki, what a shitlord. what sort of skater doesn’t even accept an interview after a flop like that. The JSF might shelf him at this rate if he isn’t careful, maybe it would be for the best. He’s getting old now, and he isn’t like viktor, he doesn’t have the kind of talent that would justify him sticking around despite his age. He isn’t going to get any better, yesterdays sp could probably be the peak of his career, and this is his fall from glory. that’s rather pathetic

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

I hope he enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame -_-

**Viktor Fanclub Official:**

All that’s left to do is wait.

 

Viktor scowled at his phone with a glare that could kill. And Viktor Nikiforov did not frown often.

 

 

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  What on god’s earth are you rambling about, vicchan? Why are you always so quick to say yuuri’s career dead? Clearly you haven’t been keeping close track of yuuri’s career, so I don’t know why you think you’re so qualified as to rush in and drop your two cents when clearly you don’t know the first thing about what you’re saying. why don’t you take it from someone who has been keeping track and someone who does know skating well enough to say that this is by no means yuuri’s fall from grace.

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  Yuuri is nothing if not resilient. He’s had a few minor injuries before, he’s had a few upsets in the past. Need I remind you all of what happened at junior worlds at his last year in the junior division. Everyone said his score was abysmal after his short program, and then after the short program his rank went up by 7. Yesterday was not the fluke, today was. To assume that a skater’s career is over just because of one below average performance is an extremely ignorant assumption on your part.

**KATSUKI YUURI’s #1 FANS:**

            @VNikiforovFanclubOfficial  Plus I find it pertinent to mention that yuuri’s technical score was actually decent, for whatever reason, the performance aspect of his program suffered more than the technical aspects, although as the announcer where i was put it he sort of “trailed off at the end” and messed up the timing, the biellman spin, the 3Lz-3T-3Lo jump sequence right at the halfway point was good, and the combination spin at the end, although he traveled a little, was particularly nice. And furthermore....

 

 

 

Yuuri eventually calmed down. He took deep breaths, still leaning against the hard wall and sitting on the floor. He was pretty uncomfortable, but at least now he was all cried out. He felt empty, calm, his face still warm from tears and his eyes still puffy. He finally dislodged his phone from his pocket and checked the time.

And-- holy heck he had a lot of notifications.

He unlocked his phone and went to his messaging app to let Phichit and Celestino know he was feeling better. He started to walk back to the rink.

He took another look at the time… He might be able to catch Viktor’s freeskate. Speaking of, most of his notifications were from his Vicchan twitter post getting responses. That was pretty normal. But GoldY had made like a string of 10 responses and had gone on a compete rambling tirade, talking about GOEs and Yuuri's entire career thus far, it seemed. Yuuri couldn't help but chuckle and smirk. He'd engage in their argument when his head was clearer.

 

 

 

As Viktor approached the rink, he looked towards the seats reserved for competitors, and he spotted Yuuri, sitting next to his coach and looking at his phone. He wasn’t crying, at least.

Viktor released a sigh and allowed his lips to tilt in a smile. He just hoped he could cheer Yuuri up a little, somehow... Weather through his performance or through his second identity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *emerges from a pile  
> Hey, I love you!!! thank you for reading!!!! :D  
> *returns to my pile  
> Sorry this took so long, some life stuff happened and I wasn’t really in a good writing mood, so it took some time to write  
> then i had to figure out how to format this chapter to be understandable and i had to make a few major edits  
> i did watch worlds <3 i managed to catch most of it although i was pretty busy, i did get to see queen medo-chan in action >:3 she's really incredible.   
> ah that's right! sneak preiews! ii almsot forgot lol, the next chapter is a little rough around the edges thus far but here's a thing:
> 
> "So Viktor was unsure how to play this.  
> The persona of GoldY was usually a means for him to be a bit more open and honest on the internet. But now… now he wasn’t sure what he should do. If he were honest he would fall in with the Viktuuri hype. But that would be a huge red flag. And what on earth would Vicchan think?   
> But, he didn’t really want to lie.  
> He leaned forward again and pulled up the club tumblr."  
> hmm
> 
> i've actually been working on another fic as well, but i dont know if i like it enough to post it just yet? we'll see. 
> 
> also, full disclosure, i got my ideas for how i represented text messages from the fic "[You Took Your Time](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9681050/chapters/21861314)" by flarechaser... if you havent read that i really recommend you do it's a fav of mine and i gotta give credit where credit is due

**Author's Note:**

> tweets are supposed to only be 140 characters, and the tweets i wrote out were too long. so lets just say in the real world ,those tweets would have to be split up into several tweets, but that would be a pain in the ass, so i'm gonna leave it how it is.
> 
> THANK YOU FOR READING! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!


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